What are Subsistence Strategies?

Pastoralism

Pastoralists rely on animal husbandry, the raising and breeding of animals, to provide for their needs. These domesticated animals are usually herbivorous herd animals such as horses (as in Mongolia and Central Asia), cattle (as in East Africa), sheep and goats (as in Southwest Asia) or camels (as in Southwest Asia and North and East Africa). The animals are the dominant figure in pastoralist societies and are often the focus of important events, rituals and ceremonies.

Types of Pastoralists

There are two types of pastoralism: nomadism and transhumance.

Pastoral nomads follow the irregular migratory patterns of their herd and do not migrate between fixed locations throughout the year. Pastoral nomads live in portable shelters, such as tents. Examples of pastoral nomads are the Yukagir in northeastern Siberia, Scythians of southern Russia, the Mongols and the Huns.

Transhumant pastoralists follow the regular migratory patterns of their herd, usually between cool-summer and warm-winter grazing areas. They often have permanent settlements in each area. Examples of transhumant pastoralists are the Navajo in the North American Midwest and the Hottentots of southern Africa.

Modern day ranchers and the cowboys of yesteryears are also a type of pastoralist. Though they're not raising their herds for subsistence (they're raising the animals to sell), the social patterns between ranchers and other pastoralists are similar.

Settlement Patterns

Pastoralists live in areas such as semiarid plains that are not well suited for agriculture but are ideal for grazing. Their settlements range from temporary encampments to permanent houses depending on the type of pastoralism the society practices. During droughts, pastoralists simply pack up and move to new areas.

Economics

The division of labor is based on gender and age. Men own and care for the animals, are responsible for agricultural production, and make all the decisions related to the family. Women are responsible for domestic duties such as child rearing, producing items used in the home, and other chores.

While the level of self-sufficiency for pastoralist societies varies considerably, most pastoral groups depend on the specialized abilities of non-pastoralist peoples. In many cases, pastoralists rely heavily on the goods and services produced by farmers, merchants and city dwellers. In some cases, the relationship between the nomads and the settled peoples is very violent and can result in open hostility, raids and warfare. Throughout history, pastoralists such as the Mongols, Zulus and the Huns have raided settled societies for the goods they needed or desired.

Diet

Pastoralists rarely kill their animals for food. In most instances, animals are milked and a host of products are produced, including butter and cheese. In some societies in East Africa the animals are also bled. The blood is mixed with the milk to create a high protein drink.

When pastoralists do kill their animals, however, the slaughter is accompanied by ritualistic celebration and food sharing. Sharing the meat from their animals solidifies social bonds between pastoralists and sets up a pattern of reciprocity that ties the community together through mutual obligations in much the same way food sharing creates social bonds in foraging societies.

Social Organization

The family is the primary group in a pastoralist society. Families are patriarchies and trace ancestry through patrilineal descent. Polygyny, a marriage practice in which men have many wives, is a common practice. A family is grouped together with other families into camps. The membership of a camp is always in flux, and is dependent on such factors as age and gender differences of group members, and herd size. Camps are organized into social alliances called tribes. Tribal membership is based upon unilineal descent, the tracing of common ancestry to a single ancestor. (Because pastoralist societies are patrilineal, this ancestor is male.) These social alliances, however, are usually unstable and require strong central leadership to sustain.

Pastoralists have a high degree of gender and age stratification with central leadership. Women enjoy little prestige within this structure. Their roles are confined mostly to the home. Boys and young men enjoy a little prestige based on their own exploits, but are not allowed to own a herd until they are elders. Pastoralist men, on the other hand, can acquire prestige in two ways: aggression and increasing herd size.

Aggression plays a large part in the lives of pastoralists. It's a necessary component of the life pastoralists lead. Men acquire prestige through bravery and military prowess. The braver a man can prove himself, the more prestige he will enjoy from his peers. Only an elder man can acquire and maintain a herd. His economic value and prestige is based on the number of animals he has and their health.

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